Il6 ONAGRACE/E. 



S. Ulmaria {Meadow-siveet S.) — This is too well known to 

 need description, and too much admired to need praise. The 

 double-flowered form is the best for the garden, and the single 

 for introducing any\vhere. There is a beautiful golden varie- 

 gated sort that is one of the handsomest of hardy variegated 

 herbaceous plants, and is constant in all soils. An abundant 

 native of Britain, and of Europe and Russian Asia, in moist 

 meadows and stream-sides. Blooms in early summer and con- 

 tinues late. 



ONAGRACE^. 



Few natural orders so limited in species comprise so much 

 that is pre-eminently valuable to the flower-gardener as this. 

 The species are not so numerous as in many other orders, but 

 they are very generally beautiful, and fit for a variety of purposes 

 in decoration. Fuchsia, one of the most popular of cultivated 

 genera, furnishes the most brilliant example of the ornamental 

 value of the order. CEnothera is the most important of the 

 hardy herbaceous genera, some of the species ranking among 

 the most showy of border-plants. Epilobinm furnishes one or 

 two species of value for certain purposes, and Gaura and 

 7,ausch?ieria are both limited but handsome groups, combining 

 both grace and colour in the itw species they comprise. Ex- 

 cepting Epilobimn^ the other genera mentioned are from 

 America in various latitudes. 



Epilobium ( Willow Herb). — This is an extensive family in 

 species, but is very generally weedy in character. There are 

 two species only with which I am acquainted worthy of any 

 notice here; the one is the French Willow Herb, E. aiigiistifol- 

 iuj?i, and the Great Willovv^ Herb, E. /ii?'siitii7?i, both of which are 

 excellent subjects for naturalising in moist places about banks 

 of streams and ponds, or in moist open woods, and the foniier 

 is valuable also for associating with shmbs. 



E. angustifolium {French Willow Herb). — This is a hand- 

 some plant, having considerable resemblance to a Willow both 

 in habit of growth and foliage. The stems tenninate in fine 

 showy spikes of rosy-purple flowers, which last for a couple of 

 months in summer. The plant grows from 2 to 4 or more feet 

 high, and may be considered too gross and encroaching for 

 admission among select herbaceous plants, but there are few 

 places of considerable extent where this and like plants may 

 not be used with propriety and excellent effect, and particularly 



